When That Championship Season was first produced, the play was generally praised by critics who had found the quality of plays in New York on the decline. Though there were those who had various problems with the play, they were a distinct minority. Clive Barnes of the The New York Times is one critic who believes That Championship Season struck a deep chord. He writes

This is an enormously rich play. It is one of those strip-all, tell-everything plays in the tradition of Virginia Wolf or Boys in the Band. These are hollow men, bereft of purpose, clinging to the empty ambition of p ower. . . . They are morally and intellectually bankrupt. And yet they are human, recognizable and even, in a way, likable.

The way Miller drew these characters, and what these characters represent, appeals to many critics. Barnes' colleague at the The New York Times...